Through the Eluvian
by Artistic Ane
Summary: On one side, two frustrated men were getting into yet another fight. On another, a young woman was wishing for adventure. When these two worlds collide, can any of them help each other? Or are they each doomed to be misery's company? Warning: Language might be an issue. I wouldn't let your 12-year-old siblings/child read this.
1. Press 'A' to Select Quest

"By the Dread Wolf!" Merrill cried as Hawke entered her humble abode. "Why is my house always a mess when people are here? It's clean sometimes, I swear!"

"Merrill, don't worry about it," Hawke laughed amiably at his Dalish friend. "Before Orana, my place was always a disaster, too. Now, what did you want to show me?"

Merrill beamed brightly as she waved Hawke closer, but her smile faltered a little when she saw his two followers come inside. "Oh… Anders, Fenris. You came, as well?"

"As you see," Anders replied, stiffly.

"Clearly," Fenris growled.

Hawke sent them each a sharp look, before turning back to Merrill with a sigh. "They insisted on coming along, Merrill. I ran into them on the way."

Merrill set her mouth. "Let me guess; they don't trust you alone with the blood mage?"

"It is not Hawke we don't trust," Fenris clarified.

"Of course," Merrill sighed. "Well, I suppose if you're here, you might as well see what good I've done." She waved them closer as she led them into her bedroom. "Look! I do believe I've fixed it…"

The three men stared at the giant mirror in the corner in disbelief. The cracks were gone, but still no reflection of the room showed. Hawke drew a shaky breath as he felt the magic within the object. It did not feel tainted, as he had expected, but neither did it feel… right.

"Merrill, how did you…?" he began.

"What have you unleashed upon this world?" Anders asked, staring at the mirror in what only could be called fear. His light brown eyes flashed an ethereal blue, but he kept Justice at bay.

"Nothing, Anders," Merrill answered. "You can't unleash anything with this. It's a means of transportation, nothing more."

"Witch, if something can go in, then something can come out!" Fenris cried.

Hawke took a tentative step toward the mirror. "Merrill, have you tried to use it, yet?"

Merrill shook her head. "No, of course not. I'm not certain where it would go. That's why I asked you to come here. I need someone to-"

"You're not thinking of sending Hawke in there, are you?" Anders asked incredulously.

Hawke's eye twitched. "Anders, maybe we should let Merrill finish."

Merrill looked past the mage to give Anders one of her little 'frowny faces.' "I'd never ask Hawke to do that," she said. "I will try to enter it myself. I just need someone to hold the other end of the twine for me."

Hawke raised an eyebrow. "Twine?"

Merrill nodded. "Yes, Varric gave it to me, when I first came here. I kept getting lost, you know, and it did help, quite often. I don't need it anymore, though, but when I tried to return it, Varric told me I might find another use for it. I suppose it could work for this. I might get lost in there."

"So, what?" Hawke asked. "You're going to tie a bit of twine to your wrist and then start exploring wherever that mirror takes you? While I hold on to your life-line?"

"Well, if you'd rather, you could tie it to bed, and just make sure it stays taut," Merrill suggested. When Hawke's face kept its stony mask, she sighed. "Lethallin, this is my burden to bear, the one I chose so many years ago. I thank you for your help with earning the Arulin'Holm, but this part, this part I can do."

"Doesn't mean I have to like it," Hawke grumbled.

"Better her than anyone else, Hawke," Fenris said from the doorway. "As she says, this is her burden, and you should not feel the need to shoulder it."

"Nor should you feel the need to tell me what to feel," Hawke retorted icily. "Merrill, where is this twine?"

Merrill brightened up as she grabbed Hawke's wrist. "It should be somewhere in the front room. I used to keep it by the door, but I think it will be found somewhere else."

Anders and Fenris stepped out of the way for the two mages, but refused to help look for the string.

* * *

"' _The sun is shining somewhere, and Fortune loves the bold…_ '"

The owner of the voice softly sang to her otherwise empty room as she sketched the elfin being in her book. It was not turning out as well as would like, and she had been working on it for nearly twenty minutes.

"Why am I so impatient?" she muttered to herself. "No, why did I choose to do this from memory? It'd be easier to find reference for him." As she stared at the half-drawn face, she wrinkled her nose. "I'm gonna have to, anyway, for the markings."

With a sigh, she placed her pencil behind her ear and leaned her head back against the wall above her bed. Absentmindedly, she looked about her room, which felt strangely sparse without all the boxes that had, until recently, cluttered her floor. There was still the disassembled daybed on the opposite side of the room, but aside from that, everything was finally put in its place. She gave a little smirk as she said to herself, "I'm sure I'll find a way to get it messy again, somehow."

She swung her feet to the floor, and stretched her back before discarding her sketchbook and pencil onto her desk. She glanced at the clock next to her laptop. "Only half past ten?" she muttered in surprise. "Better shower now, though. I'll be dead on my feet in the morning."

She walked over to her mirrored closet, reaching out to slide it open, when something caught her eye. Dripping out of her nose was a dark liquid, slowly oozing down toward her lips. "What the…? Have I got a bloody…?" Her sentence trailed away as she felt the beginnings of a sneeze.

' _Oh, no,'_ was her only thought before a loud 'achoo!' escaped her, and blood went spraying all over the glass. She covered her nose with one hand, and bolted for her door, crying out, "Gross, gross, gross, gross, _gross!_ "

She went straight to the sink in the hallway, leaning over the drain and trying stem the flow. "Where the heck did this even come from?" she groaned. She softly blew out her nose, trying to gently remove the clot she felt forming.

"Ugh, screw it, I'm doing this in the shower." She slipped into the door directly next to the sink, and immediately turned on the hot water, using her shirt to remove the blood on her face before stripping and tossing it on the floor. "I need to drink more water…"

* * *

Fenris, morbidly curious, stepped a bit closer to the mirror. His brands somewhat ached as they seemed to reach for whatever magic the mirror held. Still, he looked into the glass, trying to see what lay beyond.

"Justice doesn't like it."

Fenris' lip involuntarily pulled back in a sneer as the abomination mentioned his spirit friend.

"He's not saying why, but he definitely thinks this is a dangerous thing. Hawke must be mad to allow her to go through with this."

"We already know he is not what many would define as 'sane,'" Fenris pointed out. "One only needs to look at the company he keeps and what he has done."

Anders threw a sharp glare at the elf. "Yes, I suppose it is strange that he would continue to allow a mage-hating Tevinter elf in his presence. Especially after what he had done."

Fenris repressed the urge to face the abomination and tear his throat. "Silence, mage."

"I can't imagine what Hawke sees in you," Anders continued.

"It is done. Leave it be," the elf warned.

Anders regarded the branded warrior with heated dislike. "I thought he had some sense," he sighed with a shake of his head.

"Do not make light of this," Fenris growled. "Leaving was the hardest thing I've done." He shut his mouth with a snap, partly wishing he had kept his silence. The other part of him knew he had been silent for too many years to truly regret speaking.

But the mage was not through yet.

* * *

"Ugh, that was nasty."

She had quickly dashed into her room wrapped in her towel, shivering in the cool air of the apartment. "Cold, cold, cold…" she muttered as she threw open her drawer to pull out her sleepwear. As she quickly slipped on the thin, long-sleeved shirt, she glanced at the bloody mirror. "Ew. I had better clean that up…" She threw another look at the clock. "After eleven? Ugh, now I'm _really_ gonna be dead tomorrow morning."

She eyed the filthy mirror, then her beloved bed. Before she decided she would regret it in the morning, she switched off the light and threw herself into her covers. "I'll do it after class tomorrow."

She snuggled into her sheets, and - as was her nightly ritual - took a final look at the time. She chuckled.

"Eleven, eleven, make a wish!"

' _I wish I had just a little more adventure in my life… Even if it's only in my dreams. Ha, yeah, sure; let's dream up an adventure.'_

As she laughed at herself, she closed her eyes.

So, she did not see that, in her mirror, her room had started to warp.

* * *

"And you were an idiot to leave him."

Fenris finally turned away from the mirror and faced the blonde with a snarl. "And _you_ were fast enough to try to replace me."

Anders drew himself up. "I love him," he declared softly. "You can't even imagine-"

"Do not bear your heart to me, mage," Fenris cut in, his voice dangerously low, "unless you would have me rip it out. And last I heard," he added, spitefully, as he turned his back, "he hadn't even considered you an option."

Fenris continued to study the mirror, which, he noted, had started to shift. He narrowed his eyes, straining to see beyond the swirling mists just past the glass.

So, he did not see Anders shaking in anger before propelling himself at the elf, sending the both of them toward the shifting mirror.

* * *

She sat up straight in her bed the moment she heard the crashing. It was far too dark to see anything, but it looked like there were two large animals wrestling on her floor. She leaned over the edge of the bed and searched blindly for her phone. She switched it on and quickly tapped the flashlight app. Her room was filled with the white light.

And she saw the lanky, white-haired man with the elfin ears and glowing markings grappling with the broad-shouldered blonde man with the feathery jacket.

"What the hell?"


	2. Press 'Menu' to Read the Codex

_A/N: What? Did you expect me to call her 'she'_ _all_ _the time? For the sake of privacy, proper nouns are lies. ;) Except, you know, the obvious ones._

* * *

This was no dream. She was certain about that. For one thing, these two were more interested in each other than anything else, and she would never dream that up for herself. For another, she was freezing outside of her covers; not wearing pants would do that. Despite knowing that somehow this was her reality, though, she still did the stupid thing.

She tried to break up the fight.

"Hey!" she cried, planting her feet on the carpet. A little louder, she repeated, "Hey! How did you two-?"

At that point, she had reached the wrestlers, and the shorter man had successfully punched the blonde one in the jaw. So, when she reached out a hand to the elf's shoulder, he twisted around with a snarl and pushed her to the ground, left hand on her throat. Her phone flew out of her hand and landed face-up on the carpet, making the warrior the only light source in the room. As she lay there, gasping, she saw him raise a glowing fist, and she knew what would happen next. Who would have guessed she would die like this?

"Fenris, wait! This is a child's room!"

' _A child?!'_ Her eyes bugged out in indignation, and she flailed against the elf to find the blonde mage and glare daggers at him. "Screw you, blondie, I'm no child!" she wheezed.

Yes, she had her own artwork plastering her walls, and her childhood toys lay upon her bed, but that did not make her _childish._ She was sentimental!

Suddenly, someone knocked on the door. The blonde man stood up in a defensive stance and reached down for his staff, which was dropped in the tussle. Meanwhile, the elf, still with his hand around her throat, lifted the young woman into a sitting position and slipped behind her, using her body as a shield. She fruitlessly pulled at the gauntlets, trying hard not to think about the fact that she was just basically pulled into his lap.

"Anna?" A young man's voice spoke, muffled by the wood. "Did you hear that?"

"Don't you _dare_ come in!" she shrieked, still pulling at the elf's arms.

"Okay, okay, _geez!_ But you _did_ hear that, right?"

Anna glanced at the men in her room. The mage looked back at her warily, and the warrior's grip on her tightened. "Yeah, don't worry about it," she called out to her visitor. "It's probably from upstairs."

"Alright." Soon, heavy footsteps faded away, and the man standing breathed out a sigh of relief as the other one relaxed.

She used that moment to throw his arm away from her and roll away. "Okay, first thing I'm gonna do is turn on the light. Then I'm gonna get some pants on. And then, you're gonna tell me how you two got in my room!"

"Who are you?" The taller man demanded to know.

Anna ignored him, and walked over to the switch, snapping it up. Immediately, the LED bulb filled the room with its glow and she saw her two unexpected guests in detail.

"Mage," the white-haired elf growled.

Yep. They were exactly who she thought they were. But how were two video game characters pulled into her room? Or her _universe?_

In the light, she was suddenly very self-conscious of the fact that she only wore a shirt and a pair of underwear. Perhaps she should have turned the lights on afterwards. Blushing furiously, she practically leapt to her dresser and knelt down to yank open the bottom drawer, grabbing the first pair of pants she saw.

As she pulled them on, her eye noticed something unseemly in the mirror.

"Oh, good going, Grabby!" she cried angrily, baring her throat to her reflection. A very ugly and noticeable bruise was already starting to form, in the very obvious shape of a hand. " **Chikushou** , I'm gonna need a _scarf_ to cover this, and it was _just_ starting to warm up! _Sheep!_ "

In the back of her mind, a little voice told her that it would probably be in her best interest to not antagonize the very scary warrior elf with the reputation of ripping people's hearts out. And that's when it hit her. Truly hit her.

' _Holy. Hot. Shit. I've got Anders. And Fenris. In my room. What the_ _fudgesicles?!_ '

Slowly she turned to face them. They stared back at her, as if just as unsure how to handle the situation. Her eyes darted between the two of them for what felt like forever. Finally, she glanced at the time.

"Two in the morning?!" she cried. "Nicholas, what are you even doing up?"

She stood up, and immediately Fenris rose into a defensive stance, reaching for the greatsword that had landed near the bed.

"Ah, no!" Anna snapped, noticing what he was grabbing. "No way are you going to start swinging that in here! I don't want to explain _gouge marks_ to my landlord!" She raised a hand to her head, and sighed in frustration. "Well, there's no way I'm going back to sleep, now," she muttered to herself. She looked back up. "Okay. I'm gonna get out of here and make some coffee. You two wanna join me? Maybe we can figure out what happened. Just, not in my bedroom."

Anders and Fenris glanced at each other, and both put their weapons back onto their backs.

"Lead the way," Anders offered, slowly.

Anna shrugged before opening her closet, hiding the bloodied panel behind its cleaner partner. She pulled out a cream-colored robe and slipped it on before opening her door.

WWW

Fenris followed the female mage with absolute distrust. Stepping out of the room, he saw two doors to his right, one opening to a tiny bathing room, but the other was shut. Across from the closed door was an alcove with a mirror and a sink. There were splatters of what suspiciously looked like blood on the white porcelain. There was a single door at the end of the hallway to their left, and it was through this one that the woman led them.

He did not know what to think of her. She was clearly a mage; how else could she light the room? He saw blue eyes flash angrily at him earlier, but she still had yet to attack either of them. Or heal the bruise on her neck. Did she think that he would feel guilty if she paraded it about? She was sorely mistaken. He studied this new threat. She was nearly the same height as he, due to her long legs, with dirt brown hair chopped slightly below her jaw. He recalled the feel of her arms as she attempted to push him off; she was weak. Even the Dalish witch would be able to cream her in a no-magic battle. Yet still, she dared to challenge two men? Only the arrogance of a mage would have stood for that.

As she walked past the door frame, she called out, "Nick, I lied. It came from my room. And why are you still up?"

"What the hell?"

They entered a rather pitiful front room, where a young man - presumably the one who had knocked earlier - was sitting on a sofa in front of a large box, which illuminated his pale features. He scrambled to his feet, revealing his short stature; he seemed to be just under a hand shorter than his live-in partner. His hair was a lighter brown, and he bore a rather scraggly beard on his chin and lower jaw. Grey eyes were wide underneath bushy eyebrows.

"Anna, what did you _do?_ " he gasped.

The female mage scoffed in indignation. "What makes you think _I_ had anything to do with this?" She stomped into the smallest and most crowded hallway Fenris had seen. There were many strange gadgets on the counters, and as she fumbled with a glass pot, he found himself itching to take out his sword again. If anything to protect him from the strange magicks she might use.

"You two can sit over there, if you want. I'd offer the couch, but as you can see, it's occupied." The mage pointed a little ahead of her, where a table surrounded by five chairs stood. Anders walked past her with a sense of purpose, and took the seat on the left of the single chair. Fenris followed more cautiously, and took the chair opposite him, closest to the glass door in the front room. The mage poured brown dust into the contraption that had held the pot.

"No, Anna, really." The young man stepped into the kitchen, staring at the two of them. "What the _fuck_ did you do?" The female sent him a sharp glare, and elbowed him in the arm. He impatiently pushed it aside. "What else would I say? Look at them! Did you hire cosplayers?"

"Yeah, that's it, Nick," she replied, rolling her eyes. "At two freakin' o'clock in the morning, I had two strangers dress up just for me. And I paid them extra to surprise me with an impromptu wrestling match in my room!"

"What is going on?" the man nearly yelled.

"Keep your voice down! And damned if I know!" she retorted, jabbing at something with her finger. She turned around to face them, her eyes practically sparking with frustration. "All righty then. You two. You are at 2 Pine Street, Unit number 284, San Francisco, California, in the United States of America, North America, on Earth, in the Solar System of the Milky Way." She took a deep breath. "How the _hell_ did you two get here?"

The two men shared a glance. The abomination opened his mouth to answer her, but Fenris interrupted.

"Tell them nothing."

Anders shot him a glare. "Did _you_ recognize the names she mentioned? Do you have any idea where in Thedas we are?" he challenged. "Telling the truth might be our only chance of returning home."

"It is none of their concern," Fenris growled.

"Wrong," the female contradicted, stepping forward and pulling out the chair at the head of the table. "It is very much our concern, because it led you _to_ _my room!_ And there's no chance of us helping you get back if you don't tell us anything. Also, trust me when I say, you _don't_ want to go out there with what you know. If I didn't witness it, I'd probably blow you off. And if others hear about it, they'll call the cops, the guards, on you. And I should mention, we're directly across the-" She was cut off by a loud gurgling from the room behind them. Fenris quickly stood, hand reaching for his hilt, throwing his chair back with a clatter.

"Dude!" she cried angrily. "Careful with these, they're old!"

"What demon have you unleashed?" Fenris demanded.

She stared at him in confusion. "What? There's no… That's the coffee-maker, not a demon. I'm not even a mage, I couldn't call one if I tried."

Not a mage? She dared to deny it? "You would lie to our faces?" the elf nearly roared.

"If you could keep your voice down, please! I'd rather not have the neighbors pounding on our door." She stood up and walked into the kitchen, pulling out a rather small tankard from a cupboard. "You guys want any?"

"No."

"Thank you, but no," Anders refused much more politely.

"Fine, more for me."

The glass pot was half-filled with a dark brown liquid, now. It seemed to be similar to a miniscule distillery. Fenris' scowl must have deepened, however, because the woman rolled her eyes with a scoff.

"Oh, for the love of… It's not magic, it's just electricity."

She opened the giant metal box in the corner, and pulled out a small bottle from inside. She poured some of its contents into her tankard, before grabbing a spoon from a drawer and stirring her mixture. She returned to her seat, and inhaled her brew before taking a sip.

"Much better," she sighed, lowering her mug. "So, in case you haven't guessed it, I'm Anna. That's my brother, Nick," she nodded her head back behind her, and the young man dipped his head tersely in greeting. "We have another one living with us, too, but not much'll wake him. You'll have to meet him later."

"I'm Anders," the male mage supplied. "And this is-"

"I'll keep my name my own," Fenris cut in. He refused to trust this mage, or her brother. Who was to say they were where she said? How were they to know this was no trick? He would not give her power over him by handing her his name. Even if it was not his true name.

"Very well, Grabby it is," the woman said, gingerly rubbing her throat. Her brother finally noticed the dark bruise.

"What the! Did _he_ do that?" he cried, throwing Fenris a venomous look. "What happened in there?"

"I snuck up on him, Nick. Take a wild guess on what happened next. I'm lucky that I…" She let her sentence trail off into nothing, and she suddenly looked rather guilty.

"If you'd like," Anders began slowly, "I could do something for that."

She blinked at him and Fenris saw her stiffen ever so slightly as the abomination reached for her neck. The brother looked on ...eagerly? The mage gently prodded the woman's neck. Something surprised him, but he hid it so well; Fenris suspected that he only noticed due to his years of knowing the mage. He covered it with a smile, and reached for his pouch, pulling out an elf root potion.

"Take just a sip of this," he ordered, "and it should cause the bruise to fade."

The woman cautiously took the vial from him, staring at it in mild curiosity. "What does it taste like?"

"Sunshine and puppies," he stated.

Her eyebrows rose. "Eat a lot of puppies, then?" she asked, mouth twitching up.

She unstoppered the vial, and slowly raised it to her lips. Behind her, her brother sagged in disappointment. What was he expecting? Fenris narrowed his eyes at him; not that anyone would have noticed, as focused as they were on the girl with the vial.

"Ugh, that is _vile!_ " the woman cried, leaning away from the potion, as if that would remove the taste. "How does _that_ taste like _sunshine?_ "

"And that is why I don't eat many puppies," the abomination laughed as he retrieved his bottle. "But it seems to have worked." He pointed towards her neck. Before their eyes, Fenris' handprint slowly shrank away.

The woman starting downing her drink, clearly desperate to clean her mouth. After a few gulps, she placed her tankard on the table. "Thank you, Anders," she said.

"Anna?" the brother suddenly said. "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

Her brow twitched down into a tiny frown, before turning back to her two guests. "I'll be back," she promised.

She followed her brother down the hall from whence they came.

"We need to get out of here," Fenris immediately said, placing his hands on the tablecloth.

"I agree," Anders replied. "But I think it is in our best interest to stay close to… Serah Anna."

"Yes, you would support your own kind, wouldn't you?" Fenris sneered.

Anders gave him a level look. "I don't believe she is a mage. In fact, I'm not certain magic exists in this world."

"What a world would that be."

"Fenris. I can't feel the Fade."


	3. Press 'X' to Speak to Characters

Anna shut the hallway door, giving them some privacy, and snapped on the light. It did not take Nicholas long to start his ranting.

"Anna. There are video game cosplayers in our home!" he whispered harshly. "In the middle of the night!"

"Yeah, I don't think they're cosplayers," his sister began.

"No. No, you're not…" He had to pause for a moment to take a deep, calming breath. "Look. I knew you were obsessed with reading 'Dragon Age' fanfiction recently, but this… This is just too much."

"Nick, I can't tell if you're serious right now," Anna said, crossing her arms.

"Anna!" He raised his hands to her face, as if about to shake her by the shoulders. "You. Had. Cosplayers. In your _room_!"

"Nicholas. They. Just. _Appeared!_ " She began pacing up and down the hallway. "I had Fenris' hand aimed at my chest! I'm lucky my heart's still inside! Oh, sweet baby cheesecakes, Nicky, what do we do? We've got a pissy, glowy elf with trust issues, and a mage who'd be considered schizophrenic with the tendencies of a terrorist. And they hate each other's guts." She paused in her pacing as she was hit with a sudden realization. "Holy crap, we shouldn't leave them _alone!_ "

She was about to run back to the kitchen when Nick grabbed her arms. "Anna. _How_ did they get in? We need to call the cops!"

She stared at her brother in disbelief. "Nick. They just flippin' appeared out of nowhere. Go look in my room! My blinds are undisturbed, window is still shut, and the screen is undamaged. Out of _nowhere!_ And you want us to call the _police?_ And tell them what?" She held up a hand to her face, mimicking a phone. "'Hi, yeah, these two guys broke into our apartment to have a wrestling match in a bedroom. Well, one's an elf and the other's a mage, and, hello?'" She gave him a deadpan look. "Who is going to believe us? _You_ don't even believe it!"

"'Cause what you're claiming is impossible!"

She laughed derisively, before snapping her mouth shut and glancing worriedly at the closed bedroom door. Turning back to her awake brother, she began whispering again. "Dude. We have got very real evidence to the contrary sitting in our dining room. They even sound exactly like their voice actors. You can't fake that for so long!"

"Yes, you can, and you know it," Nick retorted. "Actors do it for a living. That's probably what they are!"

"Nick. I don't think you get it," Anna spoke in a calm voice, but her eyes flashed and her hands were clenched into fists. "Fenris was _pinning me_ to the ground. As he _glowed._ You _saw_ the bruise. In fact…" She shoved past her brother to check her reflection in the mirror over the hallway sink. "Wow. Yeah, it's gone. Explain that. Am I in on it, too?"

"Are you?"

"Oh, for the love of Lucy, Nicholas!" she whispered shrilly, turning around to shove two fingers in his facial space. "It is _two o'clock_ in the morning! I had a class at _eight!_ No way in _hell_ would I have stayed up this late for a _practical joke!_ "

Nick grabbed at his hair in agitation with one hand. "Then, what do we do?"

Anna rubbed her eyes wearily with a heavy sigh. "I vote we all go to bed and deal with this in the morning."

She opened the linen cabinet next to the sink, pulled out two sets of sheets, and handed one to him. "Go change your sheets, I'll change mine. And get your sleeping bag. You're gonna use it."

" _What?!_ "

She sent him a sharp glare, silently reprimanding him for his volume. "Well, we can't just kick them out! They're probably just as confused as we are! Anders can take your bed, Fenris can take mine, I'll sleep on the couch, and you can choose your own piece of carpet."

Nick rubbed his temples with one hand. "Anna, _if_ \- and that is a very _huge_ 'if' - if they even are the actual characters, do you think it's possible that maybe, just _maybe_ , they don't _want_ to sleep here? That even if they did, they might not want to be separated?"

Anna gave her brother a blank stare, indicating that the points he had made had not occurred to her.

"They hate each other's guts," she said, plainly.

"Do you know that for certain?" Nick asked, eyebrows raised. "What if they're basing their roles on an AU, instead of the actual game? Not to mention, it'd be bad idea to allow them to sleep over, anyway! They might steal from us the moment we shut our eyes, or hell, kill us once our backs are turned! If you think I'm gonna sleep while they're still here, you've got another think coming! It's 'no!'"

She continued to stare, blinking dumbly. "Shit." She bit at her lips, contemplating her next move. "Bring your sleeping bag to me, anyways," she finally said, putting one set of linens back in the closet, and marching into her room. She gathered all the stuffed animals and dolls from her bed into her arms and gently placed them on the floor in her closet, hiding them behind the sliding panel.

Nick came in with his sleeping bag, and as he dumped it onto the floor, his eyes were drawn to the closet mirror. "Oh, _nasty_ , Anna!" he cried. "Was this from your _nose_ earlier?"

"I know, I know! I'll clean it up later." She began stripping her bedsheets, unceremoniously throwing them on the floor before putting the new ones on.

"No, I'll do it, now," Nick offered, giving the mirror a look of pure disgust.

' _You germaphobe.'_ Anna thought with a roll of her eyes. She stayed silent, though; at least it meant that she did not have to do it. She quickly changed the sheets as her brother swiped the glass with a cleaning wipe. She gathered up her old sheets, as well as her body pillow, and headed toward her door.

Before she left, though, Nick called after her, "Do you know if Uncle Mark is still on duty?"

WWW

Fenris stared at the abomination in shock. "You… What?"

"Nothing," Anders said solemnly. "I can't even hear Justice's voice, anymore. I don't know _how_ I didn't notice sooner. This is… strange, wrong."

"You are not Tranquil." The words were said cautiously, but it was obviously a true statement.

"No, I think it's more like I am blocked" came the reply. "I just… can't feel the connection anymore. I think, it might be because there is nothing to be connected to." He paused, studying his clasped hands. "Merrill had said that the Eluvian could possibly lead to beyond the Fade. What if, before coming here, we ended up passing it, and Justice couldn't follow?"

"Good riddance," the elf declared.

Anders sent a sharp glare but did not comment on the obvious dislike Fenris held for the Spirit. "Until we can figure out what happened, where we are, and what this place holds, I think we had better stay close to Serah Anna. If anything, to keep an eye on her, in case she _did_ have something to do with us being here."

"And then what?" Fenris demanded, standing from his seat. "When we discover she did have something to do with it, what then? What does she want from us? Why are we here? Where is here?"

"All questions that may be answered if we decide to stay close to her," Anders patiently pointed out.

Fenris began pacing angrily. "I don't like this," he spat. "Not one bit."

"Nor do I," Anders agreed. "But what choice do we have? This clearly is a wholly different world than we are used to. It will probably be difficult to learn what we can through other means."

Footsteps suddenly came their way, and the female mage came rushing in, holding a bundle of dark red sheets in her arms. She dumped these on the sofa in the front room, ran her fingers through her hair, making it stand wildly on end, and then turned to them. She stared at the two of them in silence for quite a while.

Anders fidgeted under the scrutiny. "Is there something wrong, serah?" he finally asked.

She pursed her lips, breathing in deeply through her nose, and crossed her arms. "Okay, here's the thing. Unfortunately, I have the reputation of being extremely gullible. I wish I wasn't, but I am. It's pretty easy to trick me. And Nick is very convinced that you're not who you say you are. So, you guys should know."

She heaved a small sigh of resignation. "He's contacted our uncle, who's an officer stationed in Berkeley right now, and he's on his way. He's also my godfather, is extremely protective, and is not afraid to use his gun. It will take him fifteen, twenty minutes tops, to get here. And when he does, what are you going to tell him?"

* * *

 _A/N: Dun dun dun...  
To David Johnston, I see what you mean. I changed things around a bit last chapter to try and make it more obvious that Fenris is simply being paranoid and certain that Anna is a mage, rather than not realizing the 'simple wonders' of our world._


	4. You Cannot Rest When Enemies are Nearby

Anders stared at the young lady, fear and panic bubbling in his chest. She would turn them in? Mentally, he berated himself; it was only natural that she would call the authorities when two strangers appeared in her home. A quick glance toward the warrior told him that he, too, was staring at Serah Anna, and she shifted uncomfortably under their gazes, waiting for their answer.

Anders cleared his throat, and clarified, "A guard is on his way here?"

"Yes," she replied, firmly. "And I need to know what you'll tell him. To better diffuse the situation."

Anders and Fenris shared a glance. "I don't suppose the truth is an option?" the mage suggested.

"And what is the truth?" their hostess pressed.

Fenris frowned at her, his eyes scrutinizing. She held his intense gaze with a carefully blank one, though it was slowly growing more uncomfortable.

Anders sighed, deciding it was best for everyone to tell as much of the truth as necessary. "One moment we're in the house of an acquaintance, and the next, we fall through a mirror to land in your home. That's all we know."

Serah Anna blinked as she turned to look at the mage. "You fell through a mirror?" she asked. Her look turned contemplative as she brought a hand to her lips. As her brain analyzed each thought, her eyes darted left to right, as if she could physically read them.

After coming to a conclusion, she firmly nodded once and returned from within her mind to her living room. "Okay, I believe you. You guys came from Thedas, you are who you say you are, and neither of you can really explain how you got here. Correct?"

"As you've said," Fenris said, curtly.

The young lady visibly relaxed. "Great. Well, now that that's cleared up, you should know… I lied."

Her words had an immediate effect. Fenris grasped at his sword and unsheathed it, glaring murderously at her. Anders stood from his seat, prepared to tackle the elf again should he attack their hostess. Serah Anna had taken a few steps back, hitting the back of her legs on the couch behind her, causing her to plop unceremoniously into the cushions against her sheets.

"Explain," Fenris growled, posed to strike.

She licked her lips a few times, and gulped nervously before meekly answering, "No one is coming. I do have an uncle in the force, but I convinced Nick not to call him. We don't even know if he's working tonight. We had decided to see your reaction instead."

Anders slowly walked from the dining room to the living room, as Fenris lowered his sword, but did not return it to his sheathe. "May I ask why?"

Still eyeing the weapon with fear, she continued, "If you were imposters, we figured you'd freak out at the thought of the law coming here and drop the act."

"And since you have decided we are not?" the elf sneered.

She frowned slightly at his tone, but seemed to choose to ignore it. "Um, well…" She paused a bit, here. "Do you guys wanna rest for the night?"

Anders and Fenris resumed staring at her, clearly taken aback. She sighed. "Look, it's almost three o'clock, now, and I know _I'm_ exhausted. But I don't wanna kick you guys out, either. So, I'm offering you guys my room. If you don't mind bunking together, anyway. I'll stay up as long as you guys want and answer any questions you have to the best of my ability, but if and when you guys want to sleep, I've made up my bed with fresh sheets and Nick left his sleeping bag in there. I'll let you guys decide who gets to sleep where."

When the two men made no move to either leave the room or respond to her, she stood up and began to prepare the tiny couch for her to sleep in, tucking one sheet under the cushions and folding her large pillow in half.

"You're… inviting us to stay for the night?" Anders finally asked.

Serah Anna looked back over her shoulder. "Well, not _just_ for the night," she replied, pulling off her robe and laying it across the sofa like a blanket. "Really, as long as you need. Until we find a way to get you back home."

" _If_ we can return home," Fenris muttered.

The young lady covered up a yawn as she sat on the newly made-up couch. "Yeah, I'm not gonna lie to you guys, I have no idea how to figure all that out. Honestly, I'm not expecting it to be easy. At all. But," she continued, slipping her legs underneath her blankets, "that's something I'd rather tackle with a few more hours of sleep under my belt."

She continued to face them, refusing to lay down completely while she still had guests. "Now, do you have any questions? I'll answer anything you want to the best of my abilities."

Now Anders frowned, and pointed out the foolishness of her decision. "You would invite two strange men to sleep in your own chambers? For all you know, we could be dangerous."

Serah Anna stared back with a deadpan expression, though Anders surmised she could just be growing wearier. "Trust me, I'm well aware how dangerous you two can be," she began. "But the way I see it, everyone's safer if you both stay here for now. Nick already told me he's sleeping with his door locked, and he made me promise I'd…" She cut herself off and slumped into her cushions.

"Dammit," she sighed. "Excuse me." She threw her blankets aside and made her way into the kitchen. When she returned, it was with a tiny kitchen knife, with a blue handle. The blade was just barely shorter than her hand. "I promised Nick I'd sleep with this nearby, if I'm not gonna have a lock between you guys and me. Not that I'm expecting it'd do any good, anyways," she scoffed, tossing it onto the the low table in front of the couch.

"Do you even know how to wield that?" Fenris sneered.

"Grabby, unless you give me a reason to, I'm not even gonna need to know," she replied evenly, returning to her place on the couch. "Besides, if I ever _am_ put in that situation with _anybody_ , the only thing that's gonna run through my mind is 'stab the dude and _get away._ ' Any more questions?"

Anders frowned deeper, trying to understand everything this woman said and did. She looked maybe mid-twenties, yet seemed untrained in matters of defense and gentry and was clearly unwed. Her clothes and mannerisms were of peasant fashion, but she still held herself with grace and dignity you would not find on the streets. The way she continued to allow them in her home, and even go as far as to invite them to stay the night, expressed either a bravery or a naïveté that bordered on foolishness.

"Who _are_ you?" Anders finally blurted out, the mystery too much to contain in his head.

Serah Anna blinked, obviously surprised with the question. "Um," she began, "I'm just… Anna Wiesner. An art student. I'm currently looking for a job, I moved into this place three weeks ago. I'm not a mage, or a warrior, or a rogue. I'm just… me." She shrugged. "What more can I say?"

Fenris continued to glower, but Anders only frowned in contemplation. However much she downplayed herself, he could not help but feel there was more to Anna Wiesner than she revealed.

"I… have nothing more to ask at this time," he finally said. "Fen-?"

"You may go, if you wish," Fenris snarled at him, cutting him off before he could finish saying his name. "I still have questions. None you need to hear."

Anders scowled at the elf. Clearly, he just did not wish to sleep in the same room as an 'abomination.' Well, no matter. Truthfully, Anders probably would not be able to rest easily with the elf in the room; he would not put it past him to attempt to rip out his heart while he slept.

"Then I bid you goodnight, Serah Anna," Anders finally addressed her with a slight bow.

She frowned in confusion, though Anders did not miss the slight flush in her cheeks. "Um, just 'Anna' is okay. We don't use 'serah' here, and any other honorifics is gonna just be weird."

Anders smiled slightly at her expense, before leaving the front room down the hallway they came in. He entered the first room on the right, the only open door with the light still on, and studied his new sleeping quarters.

Directly in front of him, leaning on the wall to the right, was a disassembled something… but he could not discern what. On the center of the room, was a long black blanket folded in half, with the front part folded back to reveal a green pattern. Looking more closely, he was that the edges of the blanket were connected somehow with metal teeth. He pulled down the object that separated the open and closed teeth, and easily opened the blanket more. He chose to sleep here, because a cot was something he was used to, and to sleep in a woman's bed, despite the invitation… No, that was not going to happen.

On the wall to his left was a white dresser with many little statues and jewelry boxes standing in between the closet mirror and a very simple and cluttered desk. There was a thin black box underneath a large black book, a small white box which showed faded numbers, and many papers strewn about. Next to that was a short and squat cupboard with more papers and books all around the strange lamp that did not use fire. And then, finally, her bed, which seemed suddenly bare without all the plush toys he saw earlier.

He chuckled softly at the memory of her indignant cry when he declared that they were in a child's room.

" _Screw you, Blondie! I'm no_ _child_ _!"_

No, she really was not. Even if her naïveté was that of one, Ser- Anna was definitely not a child.

WWW

Meanwhile, Fenris had not ceased studying the female mage since the abomination left. His lips had curled up into a sneer at the flushing cheeks when he had bowed, and he only continued to stare in growing disgust.

Once Anders was gone, she shook her head slightly, before turning to face him again. She started a bit at seeing the intense glare on his face, and fear was prominent in her eyes. She licked her lips nervously again, before asking, "So, you had questions?"

"Did you really believe I would allow myself to sleep in a viper's nest?" he demanded.

She leaned down on her pillows, looking at him thoughtfully. "No, I suppose you probably wouldn't. Well, feel free to take a seat." She gestured with a nod at the one chair in the room, low and wide with torn, bright red cushions. He eyed it warily before slowly approaching it and taking a seat.

"Any other questions?"

He continued to stare at her, and she determinedly held his gaze, before another wide yawn forced her eye closed.

"Sleep," he told her. "There is no need to exhaust yourself. But know that I am keeping an eye on you."

She chuckled sleepily. "Honestly? I'd be surprised if you didn't. Good night, Grabby."

Merely seconds later, and her light snoring was all that could be heard.

Fenris was surprised at how easily she slept, how easily she allowed herself to be vulnerable in his presence. Was she so confident in her abilities to protect herself that she did not even think him a threat?

Foolish.

Slowly, he lifted himself off the chair, and crept towards her. Kneeling in front of her, he watched carefully for signs of waking, before raising a gauntlet, lyrium brands lighting up.


End file.
